Mobile Ad Spending Will Surpass Print By The End of the Year

Mobile advertising will make up nearly 10% of the U.S. ad market by the end of the year, surpassing newspapers, magazines, and radio for the first time, according to research firm eMarketer.

The overall advertising market will grow 5.3% this year to $180.12 billion, eMarketer says, bolstered by gains in mobile and TV advertising. That increase marks the first time since 2004 that the U.S. ad market has grown over 5%.

In particular, advertisers are shifting dollars toward mobile phones and tablets, spending 83% more on the devices than they did last year. Mobile advertising will represent 9.8% of total U.S. ad spending this year, ahead of newspapers (9.3%), magazines (8.4%), and radio (8.6%).

As print categories taper off, mobile is poised to grow stronger. According to eMarketer, mobile advertising will help the digital ad category represent 30% of the total market this year.

And you can thank Google and Facebook in large part for the big spike in mobile. The two have made mobile ad revenues a major part of their businesses. By 2016, eMarketer estimates Google and Facebook will represent 15% of the $200 billion U.S. advertising market.

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